Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus,
The University of British Columbia
[permission to reproduce granted if
authorship is acknowledged]
The 2022-2026 Good Governance Guide, produced by the not-for-profit Ontario
Education Services Corporation, is a practical, if lengthy, guide to the work of
governing and managing Ontario’s four publicly funded education systems: English
Public, English Catholic, French Public and French Catholic.
The guide speaks to the many responsibilities of boards of education.
Although focused on Ontario, there is much of value for publicly funded
education systems across Canada. However, there is one topic that I wish the
Guide had addressed more thoroughly: advocacy. Advocacy is something too often misunderstood
and poorly executed by school boards – especially advocacy with senior levels
of government.
Advocacy with provincial governments is typically handled poorly by most
school boards. Many – I am tempted to say most – advocacy efforts that school
boards make with provincial governments are unsuccessful or worse because the
school boards fail to appreciate that they are in an asymmetrical relationship
to provincial governments. Provincial governments have the power to create
school boards, make legislation or regulation affecting school boards, and fund
school boards.
Although it should be obvious, it is worth pointing out that it is
imprudent and unlikely to be successful for school boards to threaten
provincial governments. Some school boards believe that they can or are put in
a position where they feel it is necessary for them to “take on the government”
to satisfy some constituency. Boards that have tried to threaten provincial
governments are simply ignored or sometimes dissolved.
School boards that have been dismissed because they threatened provincial
governments believing that “standing up” to the government was making an
important point for the citizens/students fail to consider two things. First,
most citizens do not know what school boards do (or should do and often do not)
or care about school boards. Very few citizens can name the trustees on the
school boards that serve them. Second, “standing up to government” is a pyrrhic
victory because, having been removed from office, the board no longer exercises
its powers.
School board trustees are typically elected by the smallest voter
turnouts of any elected officials. In
the 1950s and 1960s public education ranked among the highest priorities of the
electorate because of the post-war baby boom. Most families had children in
schools and the population could be mobilized to support increases in school
funding. Social conditions are different today. Today, parents with school aged
children are a relatively small percentage of the electorate; many of the most
affluent and influential citizens enroll their children in private schools.
If threatening senior government doesn’t work, what does? Clear, logical,
and well evidenced arguments have the greatest potential, but constructing the
argument is only part of an effective advocacy campaign. Effective advocacy
depends upon a series of coordinated actions designed to achieve the intended
outcome. In next week’s blog, I explore the components of such campaigns.